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Informist, Tuesday, May 19, 2026

 

By Sunil Raghu 

 

AHMEDABAD – Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. recorded a 57% on-year jump in its net profit for the March quarter on high inventory gains, despite global crude oil prices continuing to see a persistent rise owing to West Asia war since Feb. 28. Lower cost of material consumed, and lower employee and finance costs also helped keep the state-owned oil marketing and refining major's costs in check, and led it to report a jump in net profit for the March quarter, contrary to the fall the Street had expected. 

 

The company's net profit for the quarter was INR 113.78 billion, up nearly 57% from INR 72.65 billion in the year-ago quarter. The net profit was much higher than analysts' estimate of INR 72.48 billion. The revenue from operations for the quarter rose 7% on year to INR 2.33 trillion. The company's top line, net of excise duty, was INR 2.08 trillion. Analysts had expected the company's revenue for the quarter to grow 25% on year and around 20% sequentially to INR 2.44 trillion.

 

This is the fifth successive quarter when Indian Oil has seen its net profit rise on year, after having seen a year-on-year fall for four straight quarters. The company's revenue rose year-on-year for third successive quarter, after nine quarters of fall.

 

Indian Oil, with a refining capacity of nearly 81 million tonnes per annum and a fuel retail network of more than 40,000 outlets, saw domestic sales of 26.07 million tonnes in the March quarter, up from 24.60 million tonnes a year ago and 26.02 million tonnes in the December quarter. Exports during the quarter were at 1.28 million tonnes, compared with 1.34 million tonnes a year ago and 1.17 million tonnes in the December quarter.

 

Pipeline throughput for the quarter was 27.66 million tonnes, as against 25.78 million tonnes a year ago and 27.56 million tonnes a quarter ago. Refinery throughput for the quarter rose to 19.73 million tonnes from 18.55 million tonnes a year ago and 19.43 million tonnes a quarter ago, the company said.

 

IOC's revenue from petrochemicals rose nearly 11% on year to INR 80.11 billion, while revenue from petroleum products rose nearly 7% on year to INR 2.17 trillion. The company's revenue from natural gas was nearly INR 114 billion, up nearly 2% from nearly INR 112 billion a year ago. 

 

The oil marketing company's operating margin jumped 223 basis points on year to 6.67%, led by lower crude oil cost. IOC reported a near 4% year-on-year rise in total expenses for the quarter at INR 1.94 trillion, up from INR 1.87 trillion a year ago.

 

The company had an inventory gain of INR 10.9 billion for the quarter. The cost of raw materials consumed in the March quarter fell over 3% to INR 974.41 billion. The company's employee cost was around INR 23 billion, down over 18% from INR 28 billion in the March quarter a year ago. Finance costs were down nearly 10% on year at INR 18.5 billion.

 

IOC said that as of Mar. 31, it had an outgo of INR 231.02 billion on sale of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders to customers at discounted price on government directive. Of this, it has received INR 60.36 billion, which it has recognised as revenue for operations in the books of accounts. The government has informed the company that it will pay compensation of INR 144.9 billion towards under-recoveries on the sale of domestic LPG up to Mar. 31, 2025, and likely to be incurred up to Mar. 31, 2026. Compensation for under-recoveries will be disbursed in 12 equal monthly instalments, from November and thereafter disbursed accordingly, the company said in notes accompanying its earnings filing.

 

IOC's revenue for 2025-26 (Apr-Mar) was INR 8.86 trillion, against INR 8.46 trillion a year ago. The company's net profit for the period rose to nearly INR 386 billion from nearly INR 130 billion a year ago.

 

The company's board has recommended final dividend of INR 1.25 per equity share of face value INR 10 each. The final dividend would be paid within 30 days from the date of declaration of the annual general meeting and the date of payment of final dividend would be fixed and intimated in due course, the company said.

 

Separately, the board also gave its approval for the company to form a 50:50 joint venture company with M11 Energy Transition Pvt. Ltd. and set up a 100,000 tonnes per annum hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids-based sustainable aviation fuel project at Paradip in Odisha for INR 10.64 billion, plus or minus 30%, the filing stated.

 

On Monday, shares of the company closed nearly 2% lower at INR 131.81 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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